“Retired NBA player Cliff Robinson, who went on the trip, said Monday on CNN’s “New Day” that he was surprised by the backlash the trip generated back home and was unaware the game would coincide with Kim’s birthday. But he was apprehensive about criticizing Rodman.

“Dennis is a great guy. Dennis is going to be Dennis,” he said. “I don’t want to sit here and ever put someone that I’ve supported and throw them under the bus. We’re grown men.”

Robinson said he and the other players “could have probably done a little more homework as to what was going on, or ask Dennis questions.”

Another member of Rodman’s team, Kenny Anderson, agreed.

“I didn’t do my due diligence,” Anderson told CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live,” saying he didn’t know anything about the political situation in North Korea.

Anderson, a star player for the New Jersey Nets in the 1990s, said he now felt “very bad” about the North Korea trip. He said his children got “approached” at school about his participation in the visit.”

It’s a bit amazing that these guys didn’t realize what they were getting into when they went on this trip, although I guess it is unfair to hold these guys to a higher standard than the Harlem Globetrotters were held to, or the Philharmonic was held to. I think the most perverse thing was that it was being treated as a birthday present to Kim Jong Un, but it is nice to see how humble some of these guys sound in the piece, whether it is sincere or not.